When The Evening Standard's illustrator Paul Dallimore decided to teach himself how to make Spanish chorizo using a recipe he found online, he didn't think much would come of it. But the results were better than expected - Paul's chorizo was delicious, sweet and herby with a decent peppery bite.

Equipment: hand grinder, blender, conical ice lolly mould with the end cut off (preferably not your four-year-old daughter's or she will be upset) or a ginger ale bottle with the end cut off

First I bought the ingredients and, for the casing, I went to Lidgates Butchers in Holland Park. At a rate of around £200 per kilogram, I'm glad I only needed £4 worth - incidentally, you can buy it for much less online.

Back at home I cut the fat off the leg of pork, made crackling with it to eat separately then diced up the leftover fat.

Using a hand grinder, I minced the pork - next time I'll use a grinder with a special sausage-making nozzle which I hope might make it easier.

Next I ground all of ingredients together in a blender and added them to the pork mince, later mixing in the diced fat. With a little bit of water I wet the casing and pulled it up around the ice lolly mould. This was all very awkward.

Eventually I managed to make one broken sausage - which I later fried up for the girls - and one unbroken one which I displayed on a mounted candle holder on the wall.

The next day I started again, this time using a ginger ale bottle with the end cut off. I put any bits of broken chorizo in the freezer to fry up in the future and hung up any successful ones behind an easel where they stayed for a month.

30 days later I bought some into the office. In my opinion they taste alright but are possibly a bit clovey. I'm looking forward to trying it again - I think they'd work in a paella.